My First Detox

This month, to start the new year, I did the five day Thrive Market Detox. It was a rough week, no grains, no red meat, some days no meat at all, no dairy, little olive oil and coconut oil, not a lot of fruit, but loads of vegetables. I probably spent about three hours a day washing chopping and otherwise preparing vegetables, but it seemed like it was all I did all day. I loved the salads, so delicious especially the fresh tahini dressings. The smoothies were OK. I devoured the chicken breast and like I'd been starving all week. I discovered sweet potatoes mess up my belly, so now it's OK I don't like them.
When my detox was done, to my surprise, I didn't have any bad reactions to dairy. I didn't have any problems with eggs, but gluten was another story. Einkorn sourdough crackers didn't seem to bother me, neither did sourdough waffles or pancakes, but everything else messes my stomach up. Which is strange because I never seemed to notice any issues with bread, pasta, or other baked goods before. My theory is, my body cleaned house during my detox and so it more readily recognized what was making a mess of things. Grass-fed red meat doesn't bother me, but it's no surprise sugar is a big problem.
Benefits of my detox are, less to no achy joints and muscles when I wake up. I can climb the stairs without my muscles screaming at me. My teeth are whiter, and my hair has brighter color and looks shinier. I realized just how many vegetables one can eat in a day and new ways to prepare them. I realized just how little we eat vegetables and how to remedy that. I learned some new recipes I liked. I learned some new habits, like oil pulling and drinking lemon water in the morning, and having a cup of herbal tea before bed. The detox worked in only one week!
Cons to the detox are, not every recipe agreed with my palate and it was sometimes difficult to choke down. It was time consuming, I found myself putting other areas of my life on hold. But the biggest one, It was a burden on my family who did not wish to participate.
I would definitely do it again and probably will in about six months. Things I learned this time around is how to make the recipes more appealing to my family. (Which includes adding meat, and adjusting ingredients to better suit our tastes.) Also, not all the obscure ingredients are necessary, many of them can be replaced with more readily available ingredients. So instead of golden berries in your trail mix, you could substitute organic dried cherries, and instead of filbert nuts you could use walnuts (which is what I used fyi.) If you can't find pea shoots, try radish sprouts, I used sunflower sprouts myself. And if you can't find watercress, use Dandelion greens or something else equally nutritious. See, it doesn't have to be an overwhelming list of obscure ingredients you will only use once, but if you can get them, it's nice to try them because you may find a new favorite!